Updated on: Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Several premier B-schools worldwide are making things a bit easy for applicants by accepting Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores instead of Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores.
Although it is entirely subjective and depends on respective institutes, Educational Testing Service, which conducts the GRE exam, states on its website that more B-schools are diversifying the candidate pool for their MBA and graduate management programmes.
According to ETS, the GRE General Test measures skills which have business school value. "These are the same skills measured by GMAT — verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing. The test doesn't measure knowledge in any specific discipline. However, some questions will be presented in a business context," it stated.
The site stated, the GRE General Test is accepted for admission to university masters and doctoral degree programme and a rapidly increasing number of MBA programmes. It's accepted by a fast-growing number of business schools, including some of the top-ranked institutions in the world, such as Harvard, MIT Sloan, NYU Stern and Stanford.
CSquare Learning trains students for GMAT and its director Rashmi Gowda told that over 330 B-schools globally are accepting GRE scores.
"Students should check which institute accepts GRE scores and for which programmes," she said by way of cautioning the students.
Has this helped increase enrolment? "Not really. It will take some time for this to come by," she adds.
Srinivas Sistla, Director, Questeducation, remarks, "The number is slightly increasing. In some cases, GRE scores are accepted for programmes coupled with science and management. But most still prefer GMAT scores."